Gender and Politics* (formerly called ‘Women and Politics’) is the Department of Political Studies newest graduate field.

The debates regarding Gender and Politics have captured the imaginations of social and political actors over recent decades with increasing vigour, affecting every discipline in the social sciences. Today, Gender and Politics is one of the most energized fields in the discipline of Political Science. The field explores power relations and governance from a perspective that recognizes gender as a politically and socially constructed category.

Some of the questions that are addressed in the field of Gender and Politics include: the unequal status between men and women in political, economic and social affairs and processes; the nature and implications of same-sex marriage rights and related debates; the relevance of feminist theory to an understanding of historic and contemporary questions of justice, authority and power; the meaning and significance of identities regarding gender, transgender, sexual orientation and sexuality; the implications of a gendered analysis of institutions such as the state, international organizations, bureaucracy, the military, political parties, social movements and trade unions; the impact of a gendered analysis of development and underdevelopment, international conflict, globalization, migration and citizenship; and representation and public policy regarding gendered responses, and responses about gender, in Canadian and global politics.

The Department of Political Studies at Queen’s is pleased to have among its faculty some of the most engaged scholars in this field, who are collectively part of a growing community of researchers and educators in Canada and internationally.

We encourage you to join us at Queen’s where we offer a lively and challenging environment in which to pursue graduate studies in Gender and Politics.

*Name change pending OCGS approval

More About the Faculty

Abigail Bakan is a Queen’s National Scholar whose areas of research include: employment equity policy and the politics of backlash; race/class/gender intersectionality and anti-oppression theory; foreign domestic workers and gendered migration to Canada; and women and development. Publications include: Negotiating Citizenship: Migrant Women in Canada and the Global System (with Daiva Stasiulis);Ideology and Class Conflict in Jamaica; Employment Equity Policy in Canada: An Interprovincial Comparison (with Audrey Kobayashi); Not One of the Family: Foreign Domestic Workers in Canada (co-edited with Daiva Stasiulis); and Critical Political Studies: Debates and Dialogues from the Left (co-edited with Eleanor MacDonald). New areas of research include studies of aging citizens in Canada (with Margaret Little); Marxism and anti-racist theory; and African women and HIV/AIDS.

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant’s research in this field includes gender, media, and politics; gender and political consumerism (with Andrew Grant); and gender and political knowledge. Publications include: “Gender, Knowledge and Social Capital” in Gender and Social Capital (with Elisabeth Gidengil, André Blais, and Neil Nevitte); “Conceptions of Political Representation in Canada: An Explanation of Public Opinion” (CJPS, with Cameron Anderson); and “Law as a Venue for Change? Legal Mobilization and the Feminist Campaign to Halt Gender Violence in Canada” in Le Canada: rupture et continuité/Canada: Rupture and continuity. Work in progress includes a manuscript on gender, media, and politics; an article on the possibility of women’s ethical consumerism of diamonds (with Andrew Grant); and a book chapter on gender differences in politicians’ understandings of news media. Possible areas of thesis supervision include applying a gender lens to electoral politics, public opinion, political communication/media, political parties, or legislative politics.

J. Andrew Grant’s research interests include a study of the gendered aspects of the political economy of the diamond industry ‘pipeline’, ranging from diamond mining at one end to retail sales on the other. This comprises the gendered aspects of labour practices (small-scale diamond mining and trading), human security (conflict diamonds), development prospects (diamond exports), and advertising and political consumerism (retail sales of diamond jewellery). Relevant publications include: “Human Security and the G-8 Africa Action Plan: What Provisions for Women and Children in Post-Conflict Communities?” in Rosalind Boyd, ed. Critical Perspectives on Gender and Human Security (forthcoming); “Salone’s Sorrow: The Ominous Legacy of Diamonds in Sierra Leone,” in Andreas Mehler and Matthias Basedau, eds. Resource Politics in Sub-Saharan Africa (2005); and “Diamonds, Foreign Aid, and the Uncertain Prospects for Post-Conflict Reconstruction in Sierra Leone.” The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs (2005).

Andrew Lister's main area of research is contemporary liberal and democratic theory, with a focus on problems of pluralism and tolerance. Conflicts between rival religious and moral doctrines are particularly prominent where marriage, family, and children are concerned, and these are also the main areas in which the politics of gender plays out. He is currently working on a project that aims to map the debate over same-sex marriage, as well as a paper about the question of whether a commitment to liberal neutrality is compatible with support for the institution of marriage. A secondary area of research is the history of Western political thought, including the early history of feminist thought. Related publications include “How To Defend (Same-Sex) Marriage”, Polity (2005), and “Marriage and Misogyny: The Place of Mary Astell in the History of Political Thought”, History of Political Thought (2004)

Margaret Little’s areas of research include Gender and Canadian social policy; welfare, workfare, retraining, and poverty issues; Canadian political economy; and sexuality studies. She is jointly appointed to Political Studies and the Department of Women’s Studies, whee she teaches “Sexualities and Identities (WMNS 310), the core course for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Certificate Program. New areas of research include studies of aging citizens in Canada (with Abigail Bakan) and comparative welfare policies in Canada. Publications include: No Car, No Radio, No Liquor Permit: The Moral Regulation of Single Mothers in Ontario, 1920-1997 (winner of the 1999 Floyd S. Chalmers Book Award) and If I had a Hammer: Women’s Retraining that Really Works. She is currently co-writing a book (with Pat Evans and Janet Mosher) entitled Precarious Lives: Abused Women's Experiences of the Canadian State (UBC Press, forthcoming).

Eleanor MacDonald, in addition to teaching in the Department of Political Studies, is Associate Dean of Graduate Studies. Her areas of research are related to contemporary political theory, including gender-related questions that arise out of socialist theory, post-colonial theory, psychoanalytic theory and poststructuralism. Feminist theoretical questions are particularly relevant, such as: what does this theory understand about issues of inequality or oppression, how does it conceive of the subject as gendered (also racialized, etc.)? Eleanor MacDonald uses "identity" as a prism through which to understand and compare the internal workings of different contemporary theoretical approaches. Publications include: Critical Political Studies: Debates and Dialogues from the Left (co-edited with Abigail Bakan); “Critical Identities: Rethinking Feminism Through Transgender Politics” (Atlantis); “Vectors of Identity: Determination, Association and Intervention” (Studies in Political Economy)

Margaret Moore is a Queen’s National Scholar whose areas of research include: contemporary political theory (especially justice theory); identity politics; democratic theory; indigenous self-government; and the ethics of secession. Publications include: Nations, States and Borders: Diverse Ethical Theories (with Allan Buchanan); the Ethics of Nationalism; and Foundations of Liberalism. Her article, "Justice and Care", Women and Politics, vol. 20, issue 2 (April 1999), won the American Political Science Association 2000 Prize for the Best Article published in the field of women and politics in the previous year.